Speak up, woman: women can let their guard down and discuss freely about health concerns

Mehak Mudassir

Most women tend to keep their health issues on the back burner due to their inhibitions and avoid sharing their health concerns with their loved ones. There is a dire need to break her silence and disclose the challenges she faces, be it physical or mental. Manipal Hospitals has taken a step to address this silence through an initiative ‘For Women, By Women’, a video consultation platform where women can come forward to discuss their health concerns with women practitioners.

The platform addresses any problems that women are likely to face, from a lump or swelling in the armpit, discomfort, mental fatigue, tiredness, loss of weight, missed period, headache, to psychological-emotional issues. Moreover, it has been curated for the comfort of women with an easy two-step registration process and assures cent percent confidentiality. It is time for women drop their reticence and open up about their deepest worries and find comfort in the advice of women specialists at Manipal Hospitals.

Karthik Rajagopal, COO, Manipal Hospitals, spoke to News Trail about this venture:

What was the idea behind starting the video consultation platform?
We understand the challenges faced by women and endeavour to ease the process for them to reach out for medical support. We want every woman to share her silence and suffering and avoid suffering. This is an attempt by Manipal hospital to clear the roadblocks for women to come forward and openly share their health issues. We understand that every woman needs to find comfort in disclosing her concerns, and we strive to provide it in a timely and cost-effective manner.

How has it helped women?
This tele-consultation platform is exclusively made For Women By Women. It has helped women to talk about their illness, symptoms and pain that does not necessarily link to their health but to any kind of mental illness also. Any kind of agony which requires medical attention can be examined to see if this is an emergency or can it be taken care of at home. This video consultation gives an immediate step of action.

What has the response been from women?
As of now, it’s good. We approximately have about five-six consultations a day since we have not gone big in terms of advertisements. We intend to do that later. Otherwise, we do have 30 leads that come daily. Out of which what is genuine and fits needs this platform works out to roughly around 10 - 12 consultations a day. In one of the consultations, we recommedned a patiet to undergo a PET scan and she tested positive for cancer. We were lucky to catch it at an early age.

What kind of problems do women approach with?
This is an open platform where any kind of illness including reproductive health, bone issues, chronic illness or the mental health can be discussed. We tend to address this because the doctors are women practitioners and they come from an endocrinology background that talks about the harmony of the body. They understand the mood swings women undergo and hormonal changes. Other exclusive doctors are there for health check. So any abnormality in blood or other investigations will help the doctor understand what is going on with the patient. We even have gynaecologists, in case, it is something related to reproductive issues. So once these three phases are over, if required, we scale up to the super-specialist consultation.